Directory Organisation

Organisation

DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials (CoE-SM), South Africa

Area of Expertise

Metallurgy and Materials

PGMs Used

Ruthenium

PGM Knowledge

The CoE-SM addresses a number of important focus areas within the arena of Strong Materials: Hardmetals; Ceramics; Diamond, Thin Hard Films and Related Materials; New Ultrahard Materials, Strong Metallic Alloys; and, Carbon Nanotubes and Strong Composites. The research in each of these focus areas is being conducted by top researchers.

Strong Metallic Alloys: The aim is to develop new strong alloys for commercial applications, focusing on materials that are important to the South African economy.

Hardmetals: Projects are centred on the inclusion of either vanadium or ruthenium into either the hardmetals themselves to produce WC-VC-Co or WC-Co-Ru alloys.